My first thought when you talked about this was that maybe someone set up a trial account they could play against and get wins against so they could drive up their score.

I just did some research however and found that the player with the worst glicko rating is named Warboy, and he has 113 losses no wins. Probably who you're talking about. Looking at his record, it seems pretty legitamite... he must just surrender as soon as anything bad happens, or he started way too many challenges and is getting timed out all over the place. Hard to tell.

Basically, this rating system is much more realistic in determining the skill level of someone than the in-game system, which gives you points for every game whether you win or lose (more of an experience indicator than a skill indicator). Glicko takes into account who you play, how much better or worse they are than you, and whether they are established players (the RD value). You can basically think that the scores are actually their score +- the RD value listed for them.

_________________Founder of The New World Order, and moderator for the Andromeda Clan War.

RD stands for some kind of deviation (can't remember the acronym). Basically, what RD shows is how accurate the score is. When a new player begins playing, their score might improve greatly or drop dramatically with a few victories against high ranked players or a few losses against lower ranked players. RD is designed to temper this by reducing the effect of games until the player is well established. This in general is to overcome the problem that glicko isn't accurate until someone has played many games. A lower RD means the player is more established.

Further, if you beat a high ranked player with a low RD, you're going to get a huge score increase. That is because that player is known to be really good, and anyone who can beat them will get rewarded accordingly. Similarly if you get beat by a really low ranked player with a low RD, you take a big score hit. That player is known to be bad, and to be beat by them is not good news.

The Pessimistic rating is basically your score minus your RD. It assumes everyone is at the low end of their possible score range, making better-established players have an advantage (because their RD is lower). This gets rid of the silly rankings you'll see sometimes of someone that is vastly overrated just because they got a lucky timeout over a high-ranked player or something like that. You can sort by pessimistic rating if you wish by clicking on that column title.

As far as wins/losses, you have to click on the players name, then you'll see their list of games. Basically, the idea is that wins/losses don't really define how good of a player you are. One player might be really good, but only plays against the best players in the game (such as people in the clan wars that don't play other games), but just because they get a lot of losses from these top-teir players doesn't make them bad. Similarly, a person that only plays against new players will get a lot of wins, even if they aren't one of the better players. Mentor accounts get vast amounts of victories as they play against people in their first games.

_________________Founder of The New World Order, and moderator for the Andromeda Clan War.

thanks again for replies....
Regarding wins/losses:
I have wondered(still do)....who's on the other end of the net connector...In the past I have played wargames with a consistent opponent face to face over a real gameboard, with little counters, dice, and brain-melting rulebook.....only one opponent due to the unpopularity of diversion such as the wargame....(Avalon Hill)....we played for twelve hours at a stretch, and more than once. We were(and are) also good friends....more than once the dice were taken up in raised fist and thrown furioiusly at a wall....the tempatation to hit the opponent being averted....bad dice rolls can ruin one's worldview...frustration ....
Some internet opponents find no reason to make conversation....Again, I wonder who is out there and what is their condition.....i appreciate a human element and that means someone saying something....."Hello..?....is there anybody out there?".....even if it's something plain and simple, an opinion, whether it is politically correct or incorrect....or a big WHINE.....like "why me!?!".....
I am 44 years and have challenged my base nature to view gaming as a pleasant diversion, not a monkey on the back or proof that i am, after all, better than others .....or even as further proof that "I never win!"....(waah).....these are real options and are not the only perspectives but they are often the ones we have....make sense?....sure....
When I get a crappy allotment of territories, I declare a profanity, but then knuckle down to "what can I do to make this work?"....
winning or losing ....i need to remember that i am playing a game....and since no one pays me to do it, it's not a job, it's FUN!.....
Let decency rule.

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